In response to consumer demand, it has long been possible to order garments (i.e., articles of clothing) by mail or telephone. More recently, with the advent of e-commerce and e-tailing, on-line ordering has been possible. A major drawback with remotely ordering garments is a lack of assurance that the requested garments will fit properly. Indeed, modern e-tailing methods have a return rate of up to 40%. Further, some consumers order several different sizes of the same type of garment hoping that one article in the order will fib. The others would then be returned. These problems have seriously impacted the profitability of e-tailing, resulting in some firms pulling out of e-tailing altogether and others scaling back operations or experiencing lower levels of profitability than they might otherwise realise.
A number of attempts have been made at addressing the problem of ordering improperly sized garments. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,956,525 to Minsky describes an arrangement wherein a consumer may have body measurements captured in a booth. A drawback with such an arrangement is the expense in providing the booths. Further, the approach requires a paradigm to convert body measurements to the sizing of clothes. This paradigm may result in the manufacture of garments which the consumer considers to be ill-fitting.
Accordingly, a need remains for a method and system which allows for the consumers to have a more accurate estimate and understanding of tie fit of garments in order to facilitate ordering of such garments.